Secret Safe
by Shamelsshussy
Summary: What happened between Betty and Kate in 2x01, before Gladys came knocking.


**My first Bomb Girls fic. I'm kind of obsessed, especially with Betty. **

**I just kept thinking about what happened once they got home in 2x01, before Gladys showed up. Betty looked so worried and guilty, Kate looked so unearthly. Here's one way I thought of it. **

**I don't own these characters, obvs. **

* * *

The walk home was hurried and silent. Betty said a silent prayer of thanks for the cold night. She and Kate blended in to the crowds on the sidewalk; fell into step with dozens of others who were rushing home with heads bowed against the icy night.

She felt Kate start to shiver beside her, felt Kate's fingers dig a little tighter at her elbow. Not sure if Kate was frightened or frozen, Betty couldn't think of anything to do but run a little faster toward home.

Tonight seemed to be full of all kinds of miracles – Kate's voice floating out of the fog, a chance to smite the devil. And now, an empty boardinghouse hallway. No girls lingering by the phone, mooching cigarettes off each other. No one washing a slip in the sink or fixing a sandwich in the pantry. No questions, no comments, just blessed silence and lukewarm radiators.

But Kate was still shivering and now Betty had caught the shakes too.

"C'mon." Betty gently pushed Kate toward her doorway, as she fumbled in her pocket for her key. In her mind, Betty heard sirens. She hurried.

When they were inside, the door locked behind them, Kate put her back to the door, still clutching her coat around her. Still silent and shuddering. Betty cast wildly about the room in hope of a solution. Her eyes lit on the mostly empty bottle of whisky that she had shared with Ivan. She grabbed for it, sloshed a good amount into a mug and handed it to Kate.

Betty took her gulp straight from the bottle.

Kate drank, wincing at the burn.

A few minutes more, a couple of smaller sips and both girls had slowed their breathing and stopped shuddering.

Betty sighed, put down the bottle. She pulled off her scarf and coat, threw them on a chair. She turned to Kate.

"You should sit down…" She offered the bed to Kate.

Kate shook her head, took one last swig of whiskey and put the empty mug down on Betty's dresser. She crossed to the mirror, and slowly unwrapped her scarf, peeled back her coat.

Her skin was pale, shining with a sheen of perspiration. At her throat a few blotches, the shape of fingerprints, were darkening into bruises.

"Look what he did." Kate said, her voice full of wonder.

Betty looked, her mouth puckering into a frown.

"Aw, Kate…I…"

Kate stepped away from the mirror, shrugging her coat off as she turned. "Look." She said again.

Betty moved closer, her heart batting against the bars of her ribcage like a panicked bird. She bent her head and looked.

The bruises were coming in violet and blue, fading into red at the blurred edges. Betty breathed in, got dizzy, swayed forward, the tip of her nose brushed against Kate's collar bone.

She jumped back.

Kate put a hand on Betty's arm and drew her close again. "You can." She said gently. "You…can. If you want."

Betty looked up, warily. But Kate was smiling and finally warm and still.

Betty wasn't sure how many miracles she had left tonight. But she wasn't strong enough to pass up this one.

She bent again and pressed a gentle kiss to the darkest bruise on Kate's neck, just at the hollow of her clavicle.

She couldn't help but linger.

Kate breathed out, a slow, soft exhale.

She put a hand beneath Betty's chin, pulled her up until they were face to face.

"You can. If you want." Kate repeated, so close that the vowels were a warm whisper of air against Betty's lips.

And Betty almost did. But when she closed her eyes to kiss Kate, she saw a dead man.

She reeled, banged back against the bedframe. She'd have a bruise on her hip, another on her wrist in the morning.

"Betty!" Kate cried, reaching for her.

"I'm…I'm fine. Fine." Betty pushed her hair back, licked her lips. She dug in her pocket for a cigarette, glad to fumble with matches and avoid Kate's gaze.

"You want one?" She asked without looking up.

Kate shook her head, no.

"I'm fine." Betty said again, but it wasn't any more convincing.

Kate watched Betty smoke for a moment, eyes intent on the particular way that Betty parted her lips, the moment her fingertips brushed her mouth when she took a drag. Kate couldn't manage to smile, couldn't manage to cry. Instead, she turned back to the mirror and watched the bruises blossom on her neck.


End file.
